D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

— Kat —

Lily watched Hedera while the two of them planned. *So… what are you thinking? Standard split sort of deal with some allowances for treasures and keys? We basically already went over this with everyone but I thought I’d double check what you were thinking.*

[I think we could push for more but I also don’t think we NEED to do that.]

*Agreed. The real question is going to be if or when we reveal you’re a person. Earlier is probably better, perhaps before the agreement is set in stone… but I don’t know for sure. What are your thoughts here? Technically it’s your secret.*

[Perhaps, and you’re usually the one pushing for it to stay that way. Personally? I say we just tell her straight up and if she has a problem with it ‘kill’ her. Sure it might make us some enemies but technically we wouldn’t be under truce yet.]

*A bit ruthless but I suppose I can agree with that.* That more or less covered everything that Kat and Lily needed to but Hedera still seemed lost in thought. Never quite taking her eyes of Kat and Lily but her posture was a poor one for combat, slumped against the wall as she was. Sure Kat was in the same spot but Lily definitely wasn’t. As relaxed as Lily seemed she could leap from Kat’s lap in a moment and her shadow hand was able to stretch juuuust far enough to attack Hedera if it came down to it.

*So… what do we do while we wait?*

[Not sure. It depends how long she’s going to take… but if we try to rush her, even just asking how much she’s thought about it… she’s going to panic and then try to settle things straight away. It would probably end in a favourable deal for us but one more likely to break. Still not very likely… but more likely for sure.]

*Urgh. I guess you’re not wrong.*

[How about we play some mental chess?]

*Blegh, you know I’m terrible at that.*

[But you have a perfect memory!] Retorted Lily with a bit of malicious glee.

*Yeah, and it’s not the ‘memory’ part but the ‘chess’ part that gets me. Sure I could probably use my improved memory to learn all the chess openings and what to do in those millions of different positions… but I don’t care enough about chess. Whatever, I guess I can play.*

Lily then proceeded to destroy her girlfriend at chess. It was sort of weird. Kat had a… not quite mental projection of the board in her head and Lily could interact with it… sort of. It was more like tapping Kat’s subconscious and having her move the pieces on Lily’s behalf but it worked surprisingly well for game. It also meant, unlike cards where Kat would still instinctually know where all of the imaginary cards were, both of them could see all the pieces.

Still, despite more or less playing the game inside of Kat’s head… it didn’t help her. Kat was still much worse at chess between the two of them and Lily was able to scrape out a win before Hedera started to shift. Kat glanced over and asked, “Something wrong?” instead of ‘are you ready’ just in case.

“Oh… um… I guess I’m ready?” asked Hedera. “What are we starting with?”

“Well, I thought we’d start with one of the more important aspects. What are your thoughts on additional team members? How many is too many for this little group of ours?” asked Kat.

Hedera shivered and her lips descended into a frown. “Suddenly I feel as though I’m not ready at all,”

“Is it a hard question?” asked Kat. “I thought it was a fairly good place to start,”

“Well… yes it is but… I didn’t even consider it. I was mentally debating on what sort of concessions I was willing to make, not working out what our team composition should be,” grumbled Hedera.

Kat shrugged. “Well… if that’s already confusing you I suppose I should also make it clear…” Lily transformed on Kat’s lap, stretching out into her human form though keeping her head on Kat’s thighs. “This is my girlfriend Lily, and technically my familiar,”

“Wait that works?!” hissed Hedera. “Or… it’s allowed? How… I mean… what?”

“It seems to yes, and Thyme hasn’t complained either,” said Kat with a shrug.

Hedera pressed a hand against her temple as she tried to push down the growing headache. It was a good idea to team up with… these two. “Alright… that’s… well I feel like I want to know HOW that works but I suppose I can make a few guesses and it’s not that important… um… how many people were you thinking as a maximum?”

Kat shrugged, “I have no strong thoughts on it but I don’t think you’d want more than three, not counting Lily. If you have much more than that I think we’d start to struggle to find orbs for everyone to stay in the game and that’s just asking for problems,”

“I agree…” said Hedera with a slightly more confident nod as she glanced at Lily. “I suppose I can agree to that then. Though… um… I WOULD be willing to make an exception for the fourth slot if we manage to find a healer last. It… I agree it might still be a bit of a problem but a healer would be nice… for the rest of us,”

*I see no issue with that?*

[We don’t really need a healer but yeah, I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker.]

*I think you mean that I don’t need a healer but yeah I get your point.* “That’s fine with us,” agreed Kat.

Hedera let out the breath she’d be holding and nodded slightly. “Alright… um… good. In that case I’m willing to accept a forty percent of the orbs while there’s just the two of us and a single veto for the treasure chests,”

*Um… what? Should we… let that stand? Also what does she mean ‘a veto’ for the treasure chests?*

[My guess is that she wants the power to veto a real change we want. That’s just a guess though, because remember not every chest even HAS one of those. So… I’m not entirely sure if that’s what she wants but it IS my best guess at it.]

*Well I can live with that, but I’m not sure we should. Would it be better to bump her up to something more equitable?*

[I’m not certain it would be. She might be more comfortable feeling like we’re ‘using’ her to some extent. If she felt like we were about to cut her free she might start having thoughts of betrayal. Especially if it’s too equal. She might think she’s just a dead weight or that I could take her out despite the agreement as a loophole or something.]

*Alright hang on.* “So… I’m not necessarily against the idea but how long were you thinking of having the team-up last?” asked Kat.

“What do you mean? You mentioned something like that earlier but I didn’t really get WHY you’d do that…” said Hedera

“Well, my team and I thought it best to give a hard limit on team-ups so that everyone felt more secure, and with a grace period at the end obviously so that we don’t feel the need to break out into a fight at the end of things,” explained Kat.

“Oooh, um… in that case I want to go for…” Hedera deliberated for a moment, indecision clear on her face before she settled on. “A week. A week, and then we can either choose to stop teaming up in which case there is a two day grace period on attacking each other… or teaming up again for longer,”

[I think this is where she’s really pushing. The concessions for forty percent was more of a starting offer and she’s ok with going lower. Same with the veto power. What she really wants is a deal that leaves us working together for as long as possible.]

*I mean, I’m cool with that. I still think it’d be fine for the share to be more equitable but… you don’t think so?*

[No I don’t think so. I say we maybe add a little bit that says if she’s bellow twelve hours of time she gets a full share of the orbs but I don’t expect we’ll really need to worry about it. Forty percent is plenty and with three of us looking it should keep us ahead of the curve.]

*And you really think she’ll be ok with that?*

[I think she’ll be ecstatic.]

“Alright that sounds agreeable, all of the terms. However, I would like to add that we’re willing to give you a larger share of the orbs if there comes a time when you’re below twelve hours while I remaining above twenty-four. We don’t expect that it’ll be necessary, but just in case we do want you to know we’re willing to make sure you stay in the game. Of course, the terms might change if we bring in someone else, but that will also be a group decision. Are there any other details you think need to be sorted out?” asked Kat.